IMAGE OF LIBANAN: Congressman Nonoy Libanan’s Facebook page
MANILA, Philippines —A lawmaker said on Wednesday that the spate of kidnap-for-ransom cases is “clearly a law enforcement problem,” therefore the Philippine National Police (PNP) should dismantle kidnapping syndicates before they “mutate into a larger threat” in the country.
“We want these kidnapping gangs preying on the Chinese-Filipino community stamped out right away. We do not want their nefarious activities to mutate into a larger threat,” House Minority Leader and 4Ps Rep. Marcelino Libanan said in a statement at Tuesday’s news conference.
The Philippine Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc (PCCCII) has asked for the government’s help against kidnapping gangs.
“This is clearly a law enforcement problem. The only reason these kidnappers are getting bolder is [that]t they have not been apprehended, and they have not been put behind bars,” Libanan stressed.
For his part, PNP officer-in-charge and deputy chief for administration Lt. Get Jose Chiquito Malayo guaranteed that Camp Crame would act promptly on all the information that the PCCCII had about kidnapping incidents that were never reported to the police.
PCCCII secretary-general Bengsum Ko said most of the kidnappings were reported in the cities of Pasay, Parañaque, Makati and Taguig.
Ko added that it received 56 reports of kidnapping incidents in the last 10 days alone, excluding unreported cases.
Ko, who read aloud a letter signed by PCCCII president Lugene Ang, said the recent incidents “create a state of fear and uneasiness” among the Chinese-Filipino community.
“Recent disturbing events create a state of fear and uneasiness among the Chinese-Filipino community. This is because of the recent rampant kidnapping cases both in Metro Manila and some parts of Luzon,” Ang said in his letter addressed to the House of Representatives and coursed through Libanan.
“These kidnappers are worse than animals. They use torture and intimidation, rape women and send the videos to the victim’s relatives demanding huge sums of money. In some cases, victims were even sold to other kidnapping groups,” Ang further said.
Ang also stressed that most of the kidnappers are foreigners, including Chinese.
“We should never allow these foreign criminal syndicates to do whatever they want in our country,” Ang said.
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